What Are The Stages Of Addiction Recovery?
Recovering from addiction is not an overnight process. It involves a series of actionable steps, treatment, and management tools that can be followed and used for a lifetime. While different sources may dispute the exact stages of addiction, there are four core stages often noted. Learn why every addiction process goes through these four stages, what actions characterize each stage, and how addicts can proceed through the stages of addiction recovery to lead a better life.
Seeking Help – The First Step To Recovery
Whether by agreeing to a family member’s request at an intervention or on their own volition, every path to recovery begins by seeking help. This is a difficult stage for many addicts as they struggle to take responsibility for their addictions for the first time. The reality of being in a recovery house without the object of their addiction hits many addicts hard, but those who stick it out and take responsibility are ready to advance to the next stage in the recovery process.
Early Abstinence – Learning To Live A Sober Lifestyle
As days become weeks, the reality of not fulfilling an addiction can be challenging to accept. But those who commit to proceed through the stages of recovery with the end-goal of complete sobriety advance to the early abstinence stage. This stage is crucial because it’s where you begin to make connections and develop the tools that will help you achieve success in the recovery process. This stage is often challenging because it’s the first time you will be actively fighting cravings while striving each day toward recovery.
Maintaining Abstinence – Coping With Day To Day Sobriety
With more freedom and a return to a more familiar environment, this third stage is characterized by another threat: relapse. When you return to the people and setting that inspired an addiction in the first place, the tools you learned in the previous stage are truly tested. Developing life-skills is often an important part of this process, as you work to put addiction behind you and face the challenges of the real world.
Advanced Recovery – The Journey To Recovery Never Truly Ends
Addicts who retain their sobriety for at least five years enter the advanced recovery stage. While addicts rarely consider themselves completely free of their addiction, in this stage you will have demonstrated that you can live a normal life, even in the face of cravings and temptation. With a firm grip on the tools needed to remain sober, addicts in the advanced recovery stage stand a real chance at living out a normal life—but the threat of relapse can never be taken for granted.
Myrtle Beach Recovery Can Help You Work Toward Sobriety
With amenities that make your stay enjoyable, Myrtle Beach Recovery provides the ideal location to work through the 12 Steps of Recovery. Wherever you are in the recovery process, consider the benefits that Myrtle Beach Recovery can offer to help you along the way.
Please contact us for more information. We look forward to meeting you.
